Paulo Coelho, the acclaimed Brazilian author and spiritual philosopher, inspires readers around the world with his profound insights, uplifting stories, and timeless wisdom. From his international bestseller "The Alchemist" to his thought-provoking novels like "Brida" and "The Valkyries," Coelho's writings explore the journey of self-discovery, the pursuit of dreams, and the quest for meaning in life, touching hearts and minds across cultures and generations.
"Loyalty, love and respect perhaps have never been expounded with such agility like this one 'Loyalty has its roots in respect and respect is the fruit of Love, and Love drives out the demons of the imagination " which distrust everything and everyone " and, instead, returns purity to our gaze'. He cites that 'Loyalty can never be imposed by force, fear, insecurity or intimidation'. 'And because it is a choice, it will never tolerate betrayal, but will always be generous with mistakes'."
"To realize one's destiny is a person's only real obligation and when you want something, all the universe conspires in helping you to achieve it."
"You don't seem mad at all,' she said.But I am, although I'm undergoing a cure, because my problem is that I lack a particular chemical. However, while I hope that the chemical gets rid of my chronic depression, I want to continue being mad, living life the way I dream it, and not the way other people want it to be. Do you know what exists out there, beyond the walls of Villete?"
"But how will I know who my Soulmate is? Brida felt that this was one of the most important questions she had ever asked in her life. By taking risks' she said to Brida. ' By risking failure, disappointment, disillusion, but never ceasing in you search for Love. As long as you keep looking, you will triumph in the end."
"Anyone who has lost something they thought was theirs forever finally comes to realise that nothing really belongs to them."
"The book is a film that takes place in the mind of the reader. That's why we go to movies and say, "Oh, the book is better."
"Rarely do we realize that we are in the midst of the extraordinary. Miracles occur all around us, signs from God show us the way, angels plead to be heard, but we pay little attention to them because we have been taught that we must follow certain formulas and rules if we want to find God. We do not realize that God is wherever we allow Him/Her to enter."
"I think that when we look for love courageously, it reveals itself, and we wind up attracting even more love. If one person really wants us, everyone does. But if we're alone, we become even more alone. Life is strange."
"A shepherd may like to travel, but he should never forget his sheep."
"Anyone who is in love is making love the whole time, even when they're not. When two bodies meet, it is just the cup overflowing. They can stay together for hours, even days. They begin the dance one day and finish it the next, or--such is the pleasure they experience--they may never finish it. No eleven minutes for them."
"...you are different from me, because you want to realize your dreams, I just want to dream...I'm afraid it will all be a disappointment, so I prefer just to dream..."
"And if I'm alone in bed, I will go to the window, look up at the sky, and feel certain that loneliness is a lie, because the Universe is there to keep me company."
"Everything you need to know you have learned through your journey."
"Our true friends are those who are with us when the good things happen. They cheer us on and are pleased by our triumphs. False friends only appear at difficult times, with their sad, supportive faces, when, in fact, our suffering is serving to console them for their miserable lives."
"In the United States, I am a great success, but I am not a celebrity."
"But something always went wrong, and the relationship would end precisely at the moment when she was sure that this was the person with whom she wanted to spend the rest of her life. After a long time, she came to the conclusion that men brought only pain, frustration, suffering and a sense of time dragging."
"In magic - and in life - there is only the present moment, the now. You can't measure time the way you measure the distance between two points. 'Time' doesn't pass. We human beings have enormous difficulty in focusing on the present; we're always thinking about what we did, about how we could have done it better, about the consequences of our actions, and about why we didn't act as we should have. Or else we think about the future, about what we're going to do tomorrow, what precautions we should take, what dangers await us around the next corner, how to avoid what we don't want and how to get what we have always dreamed of."
"The act of living one's own destiny includes a series of stages that are far beyond our understanding, whose objective is always to... make us learn the lessons necessary to fulfill our own destiny."
"And what went wrong when other alchemists tried to make gold and were unable to do so?""They were looking only for gold his companion answered. They were seeking the treasure of their personal legend, without wanting actually to live out the personal legend."
"You must be careful never to allow doubt to paralyze you. always take the decisions you need to take, even if you're not sure you're doing the right thing. You'll never go wrong if, when you make a decision, you keep in mind an old German proverb: 'The devil is in the detail.' Remember that proverb and you'll always be able to turn a wrong decision into a right one."
"Everybody has a creative potential and from the moment you can express this creative potential, you can start changing the world."
"Flowers teach us that nothing is permanent: not their beauty, not even the fact that they will inevitably wilt, because they will still give new seeds.Remember this when you feel joy, pain, or sadness.Everything passes, grows old, dies, and is reborn."
"The battles may last for a long time, perhaps even years. There are powerful forces on both sides, and the war is important to both armies. It's not a battle of good against evil. It's a war between forces that are fighting for the balance of power, and, when that type of battle begins, it lasts longer than others-because Allah is on both sides."
"When you are enthusiastic about what you do, you feel this positive energy. It's very simple."
"Facing the difficulties, I can choose either to be a poor victim or a great adventurer."
"When we least expect it, life sets us a challenge to test our courage and willingness to change; at such a moment, there is no point in pretending that nothing has happened or in saying that we are not yet ready. The challenge will not wait. Life does not look back. A week is more than enough time for us to decide whether or not to accept our destiny."
"The secret is here in the present. If you pay attention to the present, you can improve upon it. And, if you improve on the present, what comes later will also be better. Forget about the future, and live each day according the the teachings, confident that God loves his children. Each day, in itself, brings with it an eternity."
"What you need to know is this: before a dream is realized, the Soul of the World tests everything that was learned along the way. It does this not because it is evil, but so that we can, in addition to realizing our dreams, master the lessons we've learned as we've moved toward the dream. That's the point at which most people give up. It's the point at which, as we say in the language of the desert, one dies of thirst just when the palm trees have appeared on the horizon."
"Men who have nothing to lose never give a thought for eternal life."
"This is the present moment. Learn how to gobble it up without fear or guilt."
"Simply having the courage to say senseless things made me euphoric. I was free, with no need to seek or to give explanations for what I was doing. This freedom lifted me to the heavens - where greater love, one that forgives everything and never allows you to feel abandoned, once again enveloped me."
"Wait. This was the first lesson I had learned about love. The day drags along, you make thousands of plans, you imagine every possible conversation, you promise to change your behavior in certain ways -- and you feel more and more anxious until your loved one arrives. But by then, you don't know what to say. The hours of waiting have been transformed into tension, the tension has become fear, and the fear makes you embarrassed about showing affection."
"I believe in signs....what we need to learn is always there before us, we just have to look around us with respect & attention to discover where God is leading us and which step we should take. When we are on the right path, we follow the signs, and if we occasionally stumble, the Divine comes to our aid, preventing us from making mistakes."
"With every day that passed, the boy's heart became more and moresilent. It no longer wanted to know about things of the past or future; it was content simply tocontemplate the desert, and to drink with the boy from the Soul of the World. The boy and his heart hadbecome friends, and neither was capable now of betraying the other. When his heart spoke to him, it was to provide a stimulus to the boy, and to give him strength, becausethe days of silence there in the desert were wearisome. His heart told the boy what his strongest qualitieswere: his courage in having given up his sheep and in trying to live out his destiny, and his enthusiasmduring the time he had worked at the crystal shop."